Indonesian Flower

Nov 15, 2007

Sundaland

Sundaland, which is located on the west part of the Indonesian archipelago, holds about 25,000 different species of plants. 15,000 of them are endemic to this region and cannot be found anywhere else. The Scyphostegiaceae is a plant family, which is represented by a single species, Scyphostegia borneensis, which is endemic in Borneo. Another 155 species of Dipterocarpus are also endemic to this island. Borneo also has more than 2,000 species of orchids. The forests in Sumatra include more than 100 species of Dipterocarpus, nearly a dozen of them are endemic to this island. The island Java has about 270 endemic orchid species. At least 117 plant genera are endemic in this biodiversity hotspot. 59 of them are found in Borneo and 17 in Sumatra. Unique plants from this region are similar to ones from the Asian continent, mentioning Rafflesia arnoldii, the pitcher plants and Javanese Edelweiss (Anaphalis javanica) as examples.

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